The varieties of Sioux Christianity, 1860–1980, in international perspective

The paper analyses the multiple ways in which the Sioux have dealt with missionary Christianity between roughly 1860 and 1980, placing this in an international perspective. It addresses the question of how and why Christianity became pervasive among the Sioux despite the avowed purpose of missionaries to extirpate Native culture. It contends that the churches willy-nilly preserved many elements of that culture and provided leadership opportunities for Natives that were not available through other institutions. It examines this process in the light of several interpretations of missionary encounters drawn from other cases, both in North America and Africa. While the Sioux exhibited a variety of ways of adapting to Christianity and combining it with their native religion, the most prominent strategy was dual participation, the simultaneous separate practice of the two. ‘Most Sioux people maintain membership in, and belief in the efficacy of, some Christian denomination.’Raymond J. De Mallie and Douglas R. Parks, 19871‘A very small percentage of Native Americans are practicing Christians.’William Baldridge, 19932